Comments on: Northwest Busway

By: admin

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:32:06 +0000

The hearings for the RLTS are in February, with changes made by March and the final version completely ratified by the ARC by April 2010.

It doesn’t leave much time for analysing any changes to the RLTS, so I don’t know how many changes are likely to be made.

By: Jeremy Harris

Jeremy Harris — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:24:01 +0000

They better hurry, the NZTA is working on the designation plan as we speak…

By: Matt L

Matt L — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:55:05 +0000

Sorry to dig up such a really old post. I think this is a great idea and really hope it goes ahead rather than just shoulder lanes. I have also made a submission to the RLTS in this affect. In relation to the site for the Lincoln Rd station I think the perfect site for a park and ride would be on the south side of the motorway, currently there are masts (radio?) there however I have noticed signs recently looking to lease the rest of the land out around the masts and cable stays. As buildings can’t be built here one of the suggested uses on the sign is for a car park (along with a mini golf course and other things). This would be perfect for a park and ride and would use land that can’t really be used for anything else.

Also I think that the Royal Rd and Westgate stations should be on the western side of the motorway rather than the north/north-eastern side. This could easily be done by building a bridge across the motorway in one of the two gullies between Lincoln Rd and Royal Rd. Having the station on the western side at Westgate would give it a direct link into the shopping centre (which they also want to extend to the northern side of what is now SH16) whereas the eastern side has houses up to the motorway boundary.

From Western Springs to town I think shoulder lanes would do, with the exception of the westbound St Lukes Rd off ramp in the afternoons, this part of the motorway generally seems to flow alright. In the long long long term future when it is time to convert the route to rail I would then bore under arch hill, Williamson Ave, Western park and Hopetown St to join the CBD Tunnel just North of the K Rd Station with additional stations around the Grey Lynn Foodtown and in Ponsonby.

Any news on when the ARC will have the RLTS confirmed to see if are going to change this route?

By: jarbury

jarbury — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:46:17 +0000

There are plans to link Hepburn Road with Rosebank Road. It’s a likely project some time in the next ten years. I agree that could be a better way to handle things. That is unless Te Atatu Road is widened (which it probably needs to be) and bus lanes added.

By: Jezza

Jezza — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:21:32 +0000

I don’t think you’d be aloud to do that due to the fact it’s a marine reserve…

By: TopCat

TopCat — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:22:39 +0000

The Lincoln and Te Atatu interchanges would be terribly difficult to get to in the mornings. I’d propose linking Henderson and Te Atatu via another crossing of the Whau estaury (the water between Te Atatu and Rosebank) by extending McLeod Rd or even Hepburn Rd. This would allow a huge number of people living In Henderson, Te Atatu, Glendene, Glen Eden and pretty well all areas West of these suburbs with fantastic access to the busway and the CBD avoiding the impossible to get through lincoln and Te Atatu interchanges.
All the buses travelling along Great North Rd as well as all the buses passing through Henderson could be linked into an interchange somewhere close to the Glendene roundabout (I’d buy the BP service station and a few surrounding houses). This would have to be more cost effective and sustainable than the truly hideous plans for Te Atatu and Edmonton Rd I’ve seen (WCC want to basically buy up huge numbers of homes along these roads and slice up the suburb with bitumen) and would have massive implications for local traffic flows.

By: Jezza

Jezza — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:23:39 +0000

Yeah you said in another post the only major PT project the NZTA had started planning the was extending the Northern Busway to Orewa… Is there any reason they cannot start doing this instead of the expansion..? I.e. continue to Albany but take the money dedicated to the Albany to Orewa section and put it into this idea… I think it’s a much better use of limited funds…

By: jarbury

jarbury — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:00:36 +0000

Yes Nicholas, I think I’ve only realised this morning that some future-proofing for this link might be necessary in the near future.

It might be worth emailing NZTA about this…. add that to my to-do-list!

By: Nicholas O'Kane

Nicholas O'Kane — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:38:38 +0000

Just to add, current transport plans include the widening of Te Atatu-Massey to 6 lanes once Waterview and the 8 lanning is done, so the busway could be done cheaply along side this (or instead of this) for this section. It also means that we must fight for the busway now if we want it, as in 10 years we may have lost the opportunity to have the lanes added when the road was widend.

By: jarbury

jarbury — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:03:42 +0000

I actually think this busway could be even easier than the Northern Busway. There are only a few pinch-points – like around the St Lukes Road overbridge, the Pt Chev interchange (although the future interchange with SH20 could be future-proofed for this busway) and then around Rosebank Road.

$500m is probably quite a reasonable cost-estimate.